This idea came to me, there's a lot of baseball stats out there such as OBP, ERA+, Isop, DIPS, VORP, etc. and although some here do have a pretty good understanding of what they mean and how to use them, most probaly dont. So this thread will be updated daily with a new stat to read about so people aren't left in the dark at places like sosh, soxprospects or even here. Rather than dumping all stats at once (in which case you could just use a glossary) I'll just do one at a time. Feel free to just read/comment/add/etc.
Ok stat(s) of the day: BA/OBP%/SLG%/OPS
ok today is a joint-stat day to cover some of the basics. First up there is a common set of numbers you'll find on a player's ESPN page for example and put in the order of Batting Average (BA)/ On Base Percentage (OBP)/ Slugging Percentage (SLG)/ On Base Percentage Plus Slugging (OPS) Percentage.
Heres an example: Kevin Youkillis .307/.403/.476/.879
Batting Average: Pretty basic, as you can seeing Youkillis is batting .307. Now the way to calculate that is: Hits divided by At-Bats. Youkillis has 109 hits divided by 355 At-Bats ~ .307.
On Base Percentage: Unlike batting average now walks, and hit-by-pitches are included. So basically to find it: (Hits + Walks + HBP) divided by (At-Bats + Walks + HBP + Sacrifices).
So Youk has (109 hits + 51 Walks + 9 HBP) divided by (355 AB + 51 Walks + 9 HBP + 4 SF) ~ .403
Sluggin Percentage: Now this involves hits and at-bats however now you use Total-Bases instead of hits. To find SLG you need to find a players total bases. This only includes hits (singles, doubles, triples, HR). So a single is one base, double is 2 bases, triple is 3 bases and HR is 4 bases. So if a player only hit singles then his SLG would be the same as his BA since it would just be for example with Youk 109/355 again. Youk however hits for some power so after adding his total bases it comes to: 169 total bases divided by 355 AB ~ .470.
On Base Percentage plus Slugging Percentage: Real simple, just take the players OBP and SLG and add them together. For example Youk has a .403 OBP and a .470 SLG, add them together and his OPS is .879.